DISCLAIMER: All DARK ANGEL characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and DARK ANGEL itself belongs to FOX.

ARCHIVE: No

Artwork courtesy of Valjean & JensenAckles.org

*****

The fact that he was dying sort of took away Alec's appetite for dinner that night, and he was also -- quite frankly (and for the first time in his life) -- too tired for "hot sex" with Max, not that she was in the mood either. Instead, the two young transgenics spent the empty hours until dawn cuddled together in front of a warm comforting fire at Max's place, holding onto each other and trying to not think about their bleak future.

The next morning, first thing, the pair confronted Colonel Donald Lydecker -- Manticore's former CO -- in the warehouse office he now used as his base of operations for the mercenary transgenic soldier Unit he commanded -- a squad both Max and Alec had declined to join even though he'd made them tempting offers.

"We need to check Manticore's data base for Alec's genetic donors," Max said bluntly as she stood with both hands planted flat on Lydecker's desk and looking the man square in the eye.

'Deck smiled wickedly.

"I know, I know. Info like that ain't free," Alec said tiredly, straightening from where he'd been holding up the door frame with a shoulder. Scratching his head, he then added, "Go on. Name your price. Or should I say pick my poison."

"What makes you think I have the data base?" Lydecker asked cagily. "That information was supposedly destroyed by the Breeding Cult. They confiscated my copy. Remember?"

"Oh, come on," Alec snickered. "We all know you had backups. You'd never risk losing all the information on your kids."

"Why do you want to know your genetic schematics?" the colonel asked.

"Because I've got a little health problem that needs to be taken care of and an infusion of my original DNA is in order."

The colonel scowled slightly and looked to Max. "Progeria?" he guessed.

"A blood disorder," Alec answered for her. "I'm not healin' right and the doc says it's somethin' wonky with my human DNA."

"Not the feline?"

"No," Alec repeated. "But I need a booster shot from either my original 'daddy,' or a twin or a clone. I wasn't triplets was I by any chance?"

"No," Lydecker said, his face now serious as he stood and walked to a wall safe. "Unfortunately you weren't."

"Is there an X6 out there with his DNA?" Max tried.

"A couple," Lydecker said. "But Lord only knows if they're still alive or where they'd be."

Alec frowned, then looked worriedly at Max.

"I might be able to give you a little information," Lydecker continued as he opened the safe and removed a CD.

"For free?" Max said, her voice tinged slightly with disbelief.

The colonel turned around with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "Let's just say I owe you one for not being able to find your mother for you," he said. "After this, we're even."

Max accepted with a silent nod.

Lydecker popped the disk into his computer and began scanning the data. A minute passed, then he looked up at them.

"Find somethin'?" Alec asked, trying to keep the hope out of his voice and failing.

"Yes," the colonel said. "The original human donor for your basic and detailed physical matrix -- which, by the way, is rather unusual since we usually used at least two root subjects and sometimes three to create an X5 embryo -- was someone in a batch of DNA purchased in the early 1990's from an independent contractor who was going out of the genome business."

"Lemme see," Alec said, moving quickly behind Lydecker's chair and rapidly scanning the data on the screen. Then he frowned. "All that's here is a date and a number," he said. "That won't help much."

"It might help more than you know," Lydecker said, "depending on whether or not that contractor kept more detailed records and if they're still in existence."

"Who was it?" Max said tersely, stepping up beside Alec and putting a hand on her lover's forearm. "The contractor."

"An outfit based in Kansas," the colonel said, cross-checking the data with another set of records. "LuthorCorp."

*****

"Ah, Kansas," Alec said mildly, obviously underwhelmed as he squinted in the bright airport sun and sniffed the dusty air. "Who'd have thought my ancestor hailed from here of all places. In a way, it's downright embarrassing. I always figured my progenitor to have been from one of the more worthwhile states."

"Don't knock it," Max replied. "At least Metropolis is one of the places hit less hard by The Pulse. That means records may still be intact at this LuthorCorp."

"What do they specialize in again?" Alec asked.

Max shrugged. "All kinds of research as well as import and export," she said. "At least that's what the public records say."

"Wonder why they let go of their precious genetic samples," the X5 asked as they headed for the rental car area.

"Why do you think?" Max replied. "Money."

"Either that or the military pressured 'em into it," Alec guessed. "S'pose we might find out."

"We'll see," Max said. "Get in. I'll drive." She nodded at the car. "You look like shit."

"Feel like it, too," Alec said as he took in the ubiquitous beauty that was Metropolis, Kansas. "Damn this DNA unraveling crap is for the birds."

*****

"I understand you're requesting access to some of our most confidential information," the middle-aged bald man said without so much as looking up at them as they came through the door. Dressed in an impeccable wool business suit complete with kerchief in pocket, Lex Luthor appeared every inch the billionaire he was, even when seated behind his desk (an acrylic top model that Alec figured had cost a small fortune in itself). "I'm sorry you've come all this way for nothing," he continued, still not looking at them as he wrote something down on a sheet of paper, "but I'm afraid that's impossible. Not only because it would be a breach of security, but because the data you're seeking was destroyed years ago."

Alec's shoulders slumped. "Well then, nice meeting you Mr. Luthor," he said, his tone deep with bitter disappointment. "And so sorry to have bothered you."

Sharp dark eyes flew upwards at the sound of Alec's voice, the look in them indescribable. "No," he whispered hoarsely, standing up behind the desk and nearly knocking over a glass of Scotch that was perilously close to the keyboard of his computer. "You're dead!"

"Not yet he isn't," Max snapped, stepping up to stand beside her guy. "But he will be if you can't help us."

"No," Lex insisted, coming around the desk to stand in front of the two transgenics. "You're really dead. You can't be here now. You died almost twenty years ago." He looked hard at Max, eyes narrowing with anger. "What kind of trick are you pulling? Who put you up to this? Was it Lana?" His lips peeled back in an unpleasant grin. "The make-up job is good, and you even sound like him, but it's a hoax, right? You're not Jason."

"What are you talkin' about?" Alec asked, shaking his head. "Who's Jason? My name's Alec McDowell. This is Max Guevera. We have an appointment. I came all the way from Seattle to try'n find a donor from a genetic database originally owned by your company."

Visibly shaking now, Lex Luthor eyed the telephone. "I'll call security!" he said, his voice rising in pitch. "Get out of here right now or I'll have you thrown in jail for impersonating--!"

"Impersonating who?" Max said.

"Him," Lex replied simply, the pronoun meaningless to both X5s.

"Wait, wait, wait," Alec said, suddenly understanding what Max obviously didn't. "I look like him, don't I? This Jason was the donor I'm looking for and you knew him."

"Is it possible?" Lex whispered, stepping closer to Alec and looking him up and down from from head to toe. He reached out and touched the side of the transgenic's beard stubbled face with shaking fingers. "You're his twin," he breathed. "Facial bone structure ... skin tone ... hair ... musculature ... you even have his eyes ... But surely Manticore wasn't that successful."

"As a matter of fact, they were," Alec said. "With a lot of things. And I'm livin' breathin' proof of it. So's Max."

"So you are Manticore?" Lex pressed. "As in a supersoldier created from artificially mixed DNA in a lab?"

"Yeah," Alec replied dryly. "I was made in a lab. What of it? That has nothin' to do with you. I'm here lookin' for a DNA sample that can save my life." Then he remembered something. "But you said your data was destroyed. So I guess that means I'm still outta luck."

"How old are you?" Lex pressed, his amazement rapidly being replaced by an earnestness that was rather frightening.

"Almost twenty-five," Alec said cautiously. "Why?"

"He was a little bit younger than you when he was killed," Lex said softly. "But it makes sense that you can exist because his mother gave my father his genetic sample back in the early 1990's. Then the data base was sold to Manticore a couple of years later with his DNA going with it. They used it when they made you. The time line fits."

"Hold on," Alec said holding out his hand. "Be kind. Rewind. Who's he? Who's this Jason you called me? Was he a friend of yours?"

Lex's laugh was sarcastic. "Friend?" he said. "I suppose that might be one definition. But then so's 'enemy.' In the end Jason hated me ... hated me for what I'd tried to do. But then he died along with his mother and that was the end of it, or so I assumed." A sudden thought. "Show me your bar code," he demanded. "If you're a Manticore soldier you have to have a bar code, right? At least that's what the news articles say about you transgenics."

Alec glanced at Max, but saw no reason not to comply. It wasn't like it was any big secret any more that X5-494 and 452 were the leaders of "Freak Nation" in Seattle. Turning around he brushed aside the wavy dark blond locks on the back of his neck that pretty much kept his identifying tattoo out of sight. "Cliff Notes version of what you're seeing is X5-494," he explained. He then jerked his thumb in Max's direction. "She's 452."

"Your mate?" Lex guessed. "If not, she should be," he added with a slightly lascivious smile.

Again Alec's eyes met Max's as he dryly said, "Well, let's just say we're dating."

Lex's smile broadened into a grin. "You even seem to have some of his personality," he said. "The snark and attitude is unmistakable. Not to mention the attraction to dark haired beauties. Too bad Jason didn't have your aggression and physical abilities or else he might still be alive today. The boy was always one to bite off more than he could chew and it finally got him killed. Then again, he was only human while you're--"

"Better," Alec said with a wicked little smile and a touch of sparkle in his hazel-green eyes, not at all nonplused by Lex Luthor's candor.

"Manticore trained your kind ... the X5s ... to be assassins," Lex continued his assessment. "Are you certain you're not here to kill me?"

Alec's eyebrows rose at that. It was a permutation of the conversation he hadn't considered ... that Lex might think he'd been sent to kill him, not that a corporate bigwig like Luthor wouldn't have enemies willing to pay for his elimination. It was simply the nature of the game the man played.

"No," the X5 quickly said, silencing Max with a gesture of his hand before she could jump to his defense again. "Ironic as that might be since I don't believe you when you say you had nothing to do with this Jason's death. But I really am here tryin' to find a sample of my core DNA."

"And if you don't get it you're a dead man?" Lex guessed. "As dead as Jason and his ancestors?"

"Yeah," Alec said, his voice deep and low again. "So will you help me or not?"

Lex leaned back against the desk and looked at his guests thoughtfully for a very long moment, head tilted to one side. Finally ... "His name was Jason Teague. As I said, his mother, Genevieve, was a friend of my father's which is how Jason's DNA ended up being preserved in our gene bank. God, the thought that he might be reincarnated via Manticore never even occurred to me, not even in my wildest dreams. Or would that be nightmares? Yet here you stand, a living breathing replica of a young man I knew almost twenty years ago."

"Not a replica," Alec quickly corrected the older man. "Not unless Jason was part panther too."

Lex smiled. "No, that he wasn't. Nor was he a particularly good combatant which was too bad. If he had been he might have survived. I imagine, though, that in addition to his good looks you inherited his courage, loyalty, and stubbornness. Qualities good for you, and good for your Manticore keepers. In the end, Jason might not have made the right choices. However, I'll admit I always did admire him for the way he kept trying."

"Kept trying what?" Max asked, speaking for the first time in awhile.

"That's another story," Lex said cagily. "Suffice it to say I'm sorry to have to tell you that, even though I know exactly who your DNA donor was, I don't have any of Jason Teague's genetic samples lying around. We were never that ... close. Although--"

Alec glanced up, hopeful.

"I think I know someone who just might possibly have what you're looking for."

"And the price is?" Alec asked, the same way he'd asked Lydecker.

Lex waved a hand in the air, dismissing the question. "Let's just say the look on her face when she sees you will be payment enough for me."

*****

Later, remembering the events of that day, Alec guiltily realized the poor woman should at least have been warned. However, at the time, he was only concerned with saving his own skin and Lana Lang's emotional well being wasn't a priority.

"Lex!" the beautiful petite dark-haired woman exclaimed when she opened the door of her Metropolis mansion. "What are you--?" And then her brown eyes widened with astonishment. (Or was it fear?) "Jason ..." she whispered, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.

Fifteen minutes later, holding a glass of ice water in her hand, Lana Lang lay reclining on the couch in her Parisian-themed furnished sitting room while Lex tried to explain why the doppelganger of a long dead boyfriend had suddenly appeared on her front doorstep.

"I can't get over it," Lana breathed as she stared at Alec, devouring him with doe eyes. "You look just like him. He was only a little bit younger than you when he died." Those eyes, suddenly accusing, went to Lex. "I didn't realize the government allowed human cloning."

"It doesn't," Lex replied easily. "But when has that ever stopped the military from doing what it wants to. The U.S. desired supersoldiers, and that's exactly what it got."

"Using the DNA from donors who never gave their permission," Lana scolded. But then she was looking at Alec again, and her expression softened. "You would have been what? Six or seven years old when Jason died?"

"Yeah," Alec said, about as uncomfortable as he possibly could be with the situation. "I was born in '99."

"And Jason and his mother never knew that his DNA had been used for the Manticore project?"

"None of us knew," Lex said. "Once my father sold the genetic database to Manticore all records became classified. It's a miracle the two of you," he nodded at Max and Alec, "were even able to trace things this far."

"We had inside help," Max said crisply. "But even though you've obviously identified Alec's genetic donor as this Jason Teague guy, that doesn't help us. We need a viable sample of Jason's DNA if Alec is to be saved."

"You're sick?" Lana said, her pretty brow furrowing with concern as she adjusted the collar of her black silk dress.

It was the middle of the afternoon, but Ms. Lang appeared to be ready for a dinner event if her clothing was any indication. Then again, Alec thought, maybe the lady just liked to look elegant no matter what the time of day. There were women like that -- only comfortable when dressed to perfection. "It's a genetic problem," he said truthfully. "The only way I can be cured is to get my hands on some of the original DNA used in my cocktail."

"But I've seen the transgenics on the news," Lana said. "You're part animal. Isn't that causing the problem?"

"Believe it or not, it's the human side of me that's not holdin' up," Alec replied. "The kitty-cat in me is doin' just fine."

"You're one of the ones who's part feline then?" Lana said, giving a slight shudder. "They took Jason's DNA and mixed it with a cat and created ... what? A soldier? An assassin?"

"You don't approve," Max said softly.

"No," Lana replied coolly. "I don't. And I don't think Jason would either. Manticore had no right to use him that way."

"But they did," Alec said evenly. "And here I am, in the flesh so to speak, and apparently -- through no fault of my own -- the spittin' image of your long lost love."

"Don't call him that," Lana said. "Jason and I broke up before his death. We'd been apart for months."

"What happened to him?" Max asked -- the question that was on the tip of Alec's tongue as well. "How did he die?"

Lana tilted her head, her eyes focusing on a distant window across the spacious room where blue silk drapes fluttered in an early spring breeze. "I don't remember," she finally said. And before Max could ask more she quickly added, "I don't want to. I don't want to think about Jason Teague, and I especially don't want to sit here talking to an abomination that was grown in a test tube from his cells."

Alec bit down on his lower lip. He'd been called worse, but never by someone so pretty. It hurt.

Max saw and reached out, taking his hand in hers. Lana noticed.

"The two of you are together?" Ms. Lang said. "A couple?"

"We run Terminal City together," Max said carefully.

Lana looked meaningfully at their joined hands.

"And ... yeah," Max added, "we're together, at least part of the time."

"Do you love him?" Lana asked bluntly.

"Did you love Jason?" Max shot right back at her.

"I thought so ... once," Lana replied quietly.

Alec was watching Lex closely, but his reply was for Lana. "Yeah," he said. "Max and I are love. Now, can we talk about why we're here?"

"Lana," Lex said. "They really do need a sample of Jason's DNA. I thought you might have kept something of his ... an article of clothing ... a hairbrush or razor ... something that would have cells on it still."

"I never kept anything of Jason's," Lana said. "I'm sorry I can't help you. No ... I'm not sorry. I hate thinking that this copy of him is walking around alive while he's ..." She bit down on her lower lip. "Jason deserves better than this."

Max had had enough. "Oh really!" she said loudly. "Well I think Jason would be honored to know that he helped create Alec. Do you have any idea what a supersoldier is, lady? Do you have any idea what it takes to be an X5? What Alec's gone through his entire life in order to survive?"

"Max," Alec said under his breath even as he squeezed her hand hard. "Enough with the preachin'."

But Max wasn't finished. "Alec deserves to live!" his lady declared. "And I think Jason would want his brother to have that chance."

"His brother?" Lana exclaimed.

"What else would you call him?" Max snapped.

"How about a Frankenstein monster?"

Again, Alec flinched, not that the woman wasn't right in a way.

"Lana," Lex interrupted. "Do you realize how valuable Alec is? Why, there are foreign nations right this very minute who'd pay millions for a bio weapon like him. If for no other reason than that -- the economics of it -- we need to help him survive."

"I don't care, Lex!" Lana exclaimed, springing to her feet in her agitation and nearly spilling the water she was still holding. "But of course this is all about profit to you, isn't it? Just like always. You don't care anything at all about my feelings or what really happened to Jason, or even about these two ... two ... things. All you're thinking about is how this crippled supersoldier might be turned into money for LuthorCorp."

"I've got to admit that having a genetically enhanced assassin at my beck and call wouldn't be a bad deal," Lex admitted.

"We're not for hire!" Max said loudly.

"I'm expensive," Alec said at the same time.

The two transgenics glared at one another. "Later," Alec muttered under his breath. "We'll talk."

"You bet we will," Max threatened. But then she was back at Lana. "Look," she said bluntly. "I admit that Alec can sometimes be an asshole--"

"And a liar," Lana said quickly.

Max stared at her in astonishment..

"Jason lied, too," Lana said. "Not all the time, but about the important things. It was one of the reasons we didn't make it ... our relationship."

"I always did say it was congenital," Max said under her breath. Then more loudly, "But like I was pointing out, I admit X5-494 is far from perfect. However, in spite of a few black hat tendencies, Alec's really one of the good guys and he deserves to live."

"Jason was really a good guy, too," Lana said, her eyes losing focus as she remembered. "Or at least he thought of himself as one. But still, that didn't help him in the end."

"This is a waste of time," Alec said, planting hands on hips. "She's not gonna help me. We might as well go home."

"Your hair's a lot longer than his," Lana said suddenly, stepping forward to run fingers through Alec's dark blond locks. The X5 rarely let anyone touch him -- an inborn instinct -- but he held his ground, sensing rightly that she was trying to make a connection. "Tell me," the woman said as she brushed strands off of his forehead. "Tell me what's wrong with you exactly ... why you're dying."

Alec regarded the beautiful petite woman for a long moment, then nodded, stepped back, and began shrugging out of his black leather jacket. After all, what did he have to lose? Rolling up the sleeve of his sweater, he bared his left forearm and the bruise that had doubled in size over the past 24 hours. Max's sudden intake of breath made him swallow hard, but his eyes stayed on Ms. Lang as she gazed at the injury. "I'm hemorrhaging," the X5 said quietly. "My blood is losin' the ability to clot 'cause my DNA is comin' unwound or some such thing. Before long I'll be bleeding internally. The doc says I'll eventually either drown when my lungs fill up or else I'll stroke out." A sly, slightly sad smile. "Kind of a toss up really. Either way I'm a dead man. But then I guess that'll let you sleep better at night, huh? Knowin' this 'abomination' of your once-upon-a-time boyfriend is gone."

Lana looked at him for a long moment, then raised her chin and said quietly with a finality that couldn't be argued with, "I'm sorry I can't help you."

"No," Alec said. "You're not, sorry that is. But we're leavin' anyway. Come on, Max."

*****

"Too bad," Lex said as his chauffer opened the passenger side car door. "But I guess it was a longshot, thinking Lana might have saved something of Jason's or even that she'd help you." He eyed Max. "You know, I wasn't lying in there when I said you people are worth millions. LuthorCorp could use your services if any of your kind would like a well-paying, albeit high risk, job."

"As your assassin?" Alec laughed. "Yeah, right. And I suppose this Jason guy worked for you, too?"

"As a matter of fact, he did," Lex said. "For a little while. You're a lot like him, you know, beyond even the uncanny physical resemblance. Like I said earlier, if he'd been gifted and trained like you, he might have survived.

"Gifted?" Alec half laughed. "Don't you mean cursed? I'm dyin', remember?"

"We won't give up, Alec," Max said soothingly as she started to climb into the back seat of Lex's sedan.

"Miss Guevera!" Lana called from the mansion's front porch.

Max looked back over her shoulder.

Lana was gesturing. "Come back for a moment, please."

"Wait here," Max said to a very curious Alec.

"What now?" Max asked as she mounted the steps. "You gonna ask me to send you proof when my man dies so you can rest easy?"

"No," Lana said firmly, looking the X5 straight in the eye. "What I want is to ask you a question. Alec said that the two of you were in love, but I never heard you admit that yourself. Do you really love him?"

Max blinked at that. "Why? Does it matter?"

"Yes. Because, even though I did love Jason, I never told him so out loud -- something I regret to this very day. But the reason I didn't say it to him at the time was because I didn't want that total commitment ... mainly because I was young and naive but also because there was someone else in my life whom I also loved. If I'd been one hundred percent with Jason things might have turned out very differently for both of us, but I wasn't. Now, what I want to know is if Jason's ... brother ... has earned the love of a woman completely, or if he's like Jason and has never quite gotten there due to his dishonest ways. Do you love Alec, Ms. Guevera? Has he earned that from you? Or are you just using him to satisfy your emotional needs because you can't have the one you really love or until someone better comes along?"

Max took a deep ragged breath. Of course she could easily lie, but for some reason that didn't seem appropriate. How did she really feel about Alec, her Manticore brother whom she'd been working with for years, and was now sleeping with? How would she feel when he was dead ... gone ...?

The answer was easy. "Alec's my family," Max said softly, "my friend, and my lover. Yeah, he's also sometimes an egotistical jerk, a liar, and an asshole, but I don't know what I'm gonna do without him if he dies. I was in love with another man once -- one hundred percent as you call it -- and it didn't work. We just weren't meant to be. With Alec, it's different." She looked back at the car where she knew 494 was probably wondering what the fuck was going on. "With Alec it's comfortable ... familiar ... so easy compared to what I had with Logan. None of the drama and hand-wringing and emotional roller coaster junk that I got so very, very tired of. With Alec I can argue, get furious even, and then make up with him the next day like nothing ever happened. With Alec it's friendship, bantering, and a real 'can't live with him and can't live without him' kind of thing. Do you understand? Is that love, Lana? Do I love him? I wish you could answer that for me because I honestly can't. But I do know that when Alec dies I'm never going to get over it ... never stop missing him."

"Just like me and Jason," the other woman replied softly as tears filled her pretty brown eyes. "I never really got over him even though there were others ..." Sniffing loudly, Lana looked toward Lex's car where Alec's curious face was visible through the lowered window. "Wait here," she said, then turned and went back into the house. A minute later she returned carrying something wrapped carefully in tissue paper and clear plastic.

"What's this?" Max asked as Lana handed her the package.

"The t-shirt Jason was wearing when he was killed," she said simply. "It's covered with his blood -- your genetic sample. Oh, and also tell Alec to be careful ... that Isobel might be coming for him someday."

"What?" Max said, her brow crinkling with confusion.

"Never mind," Lana said quietly with an amused little shake of her head before she turned around and went back inside leaving Max alone and without answers on the porch.

*****

A week later Alec lay lazily reclining in a hospital bed in TC's infirmary while the final infusion of Jason Teague's DNA flowed through an I.V. into his arm. Already the treatment was working -- the last of three -- and the bruise on his forearm had faded to almost nothing. He also felt like his old self again, full of energy and a lust for life that had been missing for far too long.

"We ought to thank the lady," he said to Max who was sitting on the bed next to him with one hand affectionately stroking his tangled hair.

She leaned down, planted a tender kiss on his lips, then drew back. "I think maybe that by your living we already have," she said. "Now, in a way, Jason's life continues to have meaning. The man Lana Lang once couldn't quite admit her true feelings for is living on through his brother. She'll take comfort in that, and also in the fact that that man ... that transgenic ... is loved in the way Jason should have been."

"Loved?" Alec said, one eyebrow quirking as a small smile played on his lips.

"Yeah, pretty boy," Max murmured in his ear as her lips began trailing down the beard stubble of his cheek. "Loved."

THE END